The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Customer satisfaction in regards to driving performance of a vehicle depends on how precisely the vehicle conforms to a tendency of the customer. While tendencies of the customers vary, however, characteristic of the vehicle performance is normally set to one performance mode in the same vehicle model. Therefore, reaction of the vehicle may not correspond to the tendency of the customer. Accordingly, the customer often complains about the driving performance of the vehicle. That is, if the driving tendency of the customer is identified and a shift of the vehicle is controlled to correspond to the tendency of the customer, the customer satisfaction may be improved.
Recently, vehicle manufacturers have developed research on a smart shift. According to the smart shift, a driving tendency of a driver is learned and an operating mode suitable for a current state is automatically selected between a mild mode and a sport mode based on the learned driving tendency of the driver and shifting variables detected in a real time.
The driving tendency of the driver is mainly learned through an accelerator pedal, but the driver cannot press the accelerator pedal hard at a cornering state compared to driving straight. Therefore, the driving tendency of the driver learned at the cornering state is often misjudged as a mild. To inhibit this, how roughly the driver manipulate handling is determined using a lateral acceleration at the cornering state. Through this logic, even though the driver presses the accelerator pedal slightly at the cornering state, the driving tendency can be determined to be a sport if the driver roughly manipulate handling to increase the lateral acceleration.
In conventional arts, if it is determined that the driving tendency of the driver is sport, the operating modes of the power train and the suspension system are also changed to the sport modes. If the operating mode of the suspension system is changed to the sport mode, cornering performance of the vehicle may be improved. However, if a road condition is not good, the driver directly feels it and this may cause any displeasure to the driver.